Mayor told to come clean over speed limits

Caroline Flint has challenged Mayor Davies over his repeated claims that efforts to secure lower speed limits near schools are simply a political or election issue.

Ms Flint published on her website page 1 of the letter sent to Mayor Davies after her meeting with him in September 2009, shortly after he became Mayor. The letter shows she raised the issue at her first meeting with him.

Said Ms Flint: “The Mayor clearly does not want 20mph speed limits near schools, and he is entitled to defend that view. But I think he should come clean about this. In the press he claimed it was raised as an election issue – yet he knows I first discussed this with him in 2009. And I can honestly say I raised it for years under Mayor Winter before him, and we made some progress, but there was more to do.

“He also mentions in the press a council seminar which discussed it. I was not invited to that seminar, nor was any other MP. The Mayor knows full well that Council decisions are not made in seminars – they are made in Council meetings and in his Cabinet. The Council meeting approved a clear policy in support of lower speed limits near schools.

“The Mayor has not consulted a single school or parish council over this policy, because he knows the answer he will receive – overwhelming support for lower speed limits near schools. “This is not about elections – this issue has always been about schools in communities who want something done about traffic speed. And I won’t give up on this until we get our council to support communities.”

The letter to Mayor Davies 17 September 2009 is published on Caroline Flint’s website.